Best of the Tumbling Tumbler

“Ahead of the Toronto Transit Commission’s efforts to secure CA$6b for its proposed “Transit City” plan, The Globe and Mail is duly repeating the government’s fear-mongering party line. “Exhaust pollution kills 440 each year, report finds,” the headline trumpets. “Thirty-per-cent drop in traffic would save nearly 200 lives and $900-million in health costs, city’s medical officer of health says.” So, what else needs saying? The cure: 120 kilometres of new light-rail lines. After sounding a somewhat cautionary note, the Globe doesn’t twist the “pollution kills” knife as much as use the report’s conclusion to disembowel the rail project’s opposition. “Children, too, feel the effects, with an estimated 1,200 cases of acute bronchitis a year caused by traffic pollution. Children are also more likely to suffer from asthma, and the report blames 68,000 ‘asthma symptom days’ each year in Toronto’s population on tailpipe emissions. It also found 67,000 ‘acute respiratory system days,’ when people suffer from coughing, wheezing and other symptoms.” Clearly, unavoidably, inevitably, something must be done!”

My Thoughts: If you had the privilege of watching this item on TV news, you would have seen a wild eyed, bottle lenses ecofanatic attacking carbon emissions and frightening the great unwashed from another direction.
But the objective is the same. Scare everyone into behaving the way “I” think you should. At least the program interviewed another scientist who threw lots of cold water and car parts on the data.